Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, encouraged parish priests to share their stories of “how Jesus is working today in you, in your parishes, in your diocese,” as he opened Parish Priests for the Synod. The international meeting was announced in February amid criticism that parish priests were insufficiently included on the Synod on synodality.
“Often it is hard to understand the way in which our stories could be the stories of God,” said Cardinal Grech. “Our parishes are probably far from being the best parish that one could wish for. Our stories are anything but perfect. No wonder we find it difficult to understand, to discern, how our stories are God’s.”
Czech theologian Father Tomáš Halík advised the parish priests “not to repeat past methods and old mistakes.”
“For more than 100 years, regular prayers, novenas, fasts, Eucharistic adoration and pilgrimages have been held in our part of the world to beg for new priestly and religious vocations,” he said. “However, the number of vocations continues to decline.”
Father Halík said that it is as if God were saying that our prayer for vocations “no longer resonates with what I expect for the future. Please do not knock on the door I have closed for you. Instead, boldly and creatively seek the ones I want to open for you.”